Developers lobby to reduce parkland in NSW developments

Developers in NSW are lobbying to reduce developer levies for the provision of parks, open space, recreation and other infrastructure.
Claiming that NSW Government and council taxes are adding up to $60,000 per block to the price of land, costs which are then passed on to homebuyers, developer lobby groups the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) and the Urban Taskforce Australia (UTA) along with economic regulator IPART are calling for levies to be abolished or at least reduced and reformed.
UDIA NSW Chief Executive Steven Albin said the industry well understood the importance of parks but claims that much of Sydney's western development had a 60% open space requirement including river corridors, bushfire zones and stormwater management.
Albin stated this "has the effect of reducing the total number of dwellings that can be produced and that directly (affects) housing affordability."
IPART acting Chairman James Cox believes that the affordability of new developments were affected by the "particularly high costs" of land set aside for open space.
IPART wants a whole-of-government review of the requirements for open space with the aim of scrapping housing levies for parks, with Cox stating "the cost of infrastructure should be borne by different groups in proportion to the benefits they receive from them."
Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils President Alison McLaren said slashing parks in new neighbourhoods would not solve the housing affordability crisis.
McLaren told Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph that "western Sydney already has significant problems with unhealthy lifestyles and obesity issues; reducing the access to local recreational space will worsen this problem.
"Without green spaces and parks, these new estates will become unbearably hot, placing a huge new demand on our energy supplies for air conditioning and cooling."
Under pressure from developers, NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard has advised that the NSW Government was reviewing developer levies.
However, Minister Hazard stated that the issue is "complex and it will take time. We've only been in (power) for seven months.
"The previous Labor government was in for 16 years and (developers) had plenty of time to resolve this with them."
Former NSW Government Architect, Chris Johnson, was recently appointed Chief Executive of UTA.